Burning Butts

I slept late and woke up to sorely aching butts and quads, the result of weighted squats and lunges yesterday. I had no idea how I would complete the 21km run this morning. True enough, what felt manageable turned out to be close to 7min/km pace.

There were the usual familiar faces, and a number of new runners. I jogged along with Yuen along Portsdown road until we reached the Dover Road petrol kiosk and some of the runners took a water break. I continued the run with Jason and a young boy whom I had not met before. I think he was Rosemary's son. We ran together through Dover to Clementi Road and split at the canal. I could tell that Jason was deliberately holding back - his body posture signalled that he would be more comfortable at a faster pace - and asked him to run ahead. Alber and Heng came along soon and the guys headed off together.

I ran the rest of the way back to Safra alone, and met Michael at the junction of Depot Road. By that time, I was between walk and run, and was quite happy to stop. The temptation to follow him back via Depot Road was great, but I thought I should finish the designated distance. So I shuffled along Alexandra Road, HarbourFront, Kg Bahru and Telok Blangah Rise. Trainer Ong had suggested that runners go up MF if they wanted extra mileage, but I was totally in no condition to do that today. I was relieved to finally haul myself back to Safra at the end of the run. Most of the runners were already back and chatting at lobby by the time I returned. My butts were positively burning by then. Ouch.